Tuesday, 24 February 2015

Hello, welcome to the latest in our series that throws the spotlight on some of the regular contributors to Craft Stamper. You may recognise the mixed media style of today's featured designer...Claudia Neubacher

Hi and servus (as we love to say in Vienna)! Claudia Neubacher here and I
feel honoured to have been asked to introduce myself a little more on
the Craft Stamper blog!

I live in Austria's beautiful capital Vienna, next to the river Danube, with my lovely husband, son and dog.

Having studied arts I taught arts and woodwork at school for about 20 years before I decided to become a stay at home mom (which I haven't been regretting ever since - although I loved teaching as well). That also provided me with plenty of time to explore my own creativity - which I still enjoy a lot as I had been an enabler for so many years but never had the time to exercise my own artistic skills during that time. So here I am - still learning, exploring and discovering new techniques.

When I discovered rubber stamping back in 2011 a whole new world
revealed itself to me! Stamps - being a really fast and reproducable
means for incorporating images - have freed a lot of creative potential
in me that otherwise would still be sleeping the Sleeping Beauty's
sleep. I started using image stamps first (on tags and ATCs) but soon
turned towards using stamped images rather as a means for adding texture
and depth to my creations. I found that the world of mixed media offers
endless possibilities for getting the most out of one's rubber stamps -
and like most stampers and mixed media artists I have a rather huge
collection of rubber stamps...and find myself turning to the same old
favourite stamps most of the time.

I love this particular project because it was my very first on which I
used stamps to create texture and combine them with my own drawings. In
the background you can see grass stamps that are meant to create an
enchanted forest and the birch trees bark was stamped using a script
stamp. I treasure this creation because it shows me freeing myself from
traditional fine arts techniques. You could call this make a milestone
along my road to artistic freedom.

Q: Do you have a signature style or favourite technique?

A: My
favourite technique at the moment is scraping on paint or Gesso wherever
possible. Either with a palette knife or an old credit card or whatever
I have at hand - as long as I get that speckled result I am aiming for.
I am not sure if I have a signature style...being really versatile
makes it rather hard to develop a single style that can be recognised
immediately I am afraid. Sometimes I envy artists who are able to dive
deep into a single style, technique or theme and explore the endless
possibilities of varying it as this leads to a certain mastery in what
they do. Honestly it took me ages to embrace my versatility as being a
gift instead of a challenge.

This is one of my favourites as it shows my love for combining found objects (the metal bird, which was a flea market find) and old photographs with recycled materials (the shoe box lid and the light bulb) to create something grunge and weathered looking that tells a story. This piece also shows my love for using metal embellishments and sprinkling on drops of colour for more texture. And my love for dark and grungy looking makes of course. Again I used rubber stamps for adding texture - in this case the stamped stitching here and there.

Q: Where do you look for inspiration before you start on a project?

A:
Most of the time it works the other way round: I remember something I
saw and that made a lasting impression on me and then I have to try
reproduce that effect. Often it is something textural or
weathered I saw out in nature or a colour scheme that tickled me. And
obviously I have something like a visual memory that has its own
subconcsious will and pace on setting free some of the treasures it
keeps. And when that happens I am hopefully close to my studio!

If
it has to be done the other way round (for requested projects or
tutorials), I love to browse my library and pinterest boards for
inspiration or also tutorials from other creative folk - as I still love
learning about new techniques and others' views on certain styles and
media!

A make that has some personal value to me as it shows my beloved dog Bluna dreaming her favourite dream (which includes chasing the crows we meet on our walks, running up and down hills as fast as she can and yummy bones of course). It shows my love for selfmade shadow boxes and also a rarely shown side of me as well: the more colourful and whimsical. And you can see two favourite uses of rubber stamping too with the stamped banner (done with my all time favourite letter stamps) and the once more stamped texture on the hills.

Of course I also share some of my own tutorials on my blog as I love passing on experience to others and share inspiration. I would be more than happy to welcome you on my blog "Von Pappe II" some time!

We hope you've enjoyed finding out a bit more about Claudia, thanks for joining us!

Hermine won the challenge with this fabulous project, showcasing her stunning use of colour and exquisite stamping:

We asked Hermine a few questions all about stamping (well, we are Craft Stamper after all!)

Q: How long have you
been a stamper, and how did you get started?

A: I
have been a stamper for over 20 years now. At first I bought only text stamps
but when I saw the use of a heat tool at a Dutch event I thought it was magic
and wanted more from then on.

Q: What are your
favourite kinds of stamps, and do you have a favourite stamp company?

A: My
favourite stamps to work with are background stamps of all kind, grungy,
diamonds, swirls and more. They work awesome with beautiful coloured backgrounds
and enhance gorgeous focal images.

Q: Describe your style,
are you a messy kind of stamper or a more ‘clean and simple’ kind of person?

A: I
am both, I love to play around with colour and be very messy, and other times I
really love making clean and simple.

Q:What kind of projects do you like creating the most?

A: This
is a hard question, I love everything on which you can put a stamp on and that
is a lot.

Q: Apart from stamps,
what is the one product you wouldn’t be without when you craft?

A: Oh
that’s easy, my heat tool of course.

We
also asked Hermine to show us one of her favourite stamped creations,
and share why she likes it so much. This is the gorgeous project she has
chosen:

"This
project contains everything I like, stamping on paper, wood, fabric, doing
mixed media. Its a Christmas project and every year it features my living room
during the holiday season" - Hermine

Congratulations on being our January Design Winner Hermine, and it was lovely to learn a little more about you!

Do YOU fancy having a winners profile all about you on the CS blog?

The
profile is part of the prize package for each Design Winner of our
challenges. All you need to do is enter a creation into the challenge,
then if you are voted Design Winner everyone will be reading all about
you before you know it!

Our current challenge 'Take A Technique: Stencilling' is still open for a few more days! All the details can be found HERE.

The Design Winner, voted for by our DT, will also have their project published, have a guest DT slot for an upcoming challenge, and ALSO gets their very own winners profile here on the blog....so why
not have a go at a stencilled (and stamped!) project, we'd love to see your creation!

Friday, 6 February 2015

I think we are all still recovering from the AMAZING response to our January challenge! We were thrilled to see so many fabulous creations, and it was sooooo hard to choose a winner!

Before I announce the start of the February challenge, a quick bit of 'housekeeping'.... We still have two unclaimed prizes from our Blog Hop, so if you know you left a comment and haven't checked out the winners list HERE, can you have a look? I would hate for anyone to miss out on their prizes!

As you might remember, this year our challenge is alternating between 'Take A Stamp', and 'Take A Technique'....and this month our challenge is 'Take A Technique'!

In the February issue of Craft Stamper, there are loads of projects featuring stencils, so this is our theme!

February Challenge:

Stencilling

Use ink, paint, gesso, or texture paste through a stencil... Use one of the thousands of stencils on the market, or create your own! We want to see all your projects that use stencilling somewhere..(and stamping too of course, we ARE Craft Stamper after all!)

We have two prizes on offer this month, the first is our sponsor prize.This winner will be chosen randomly from all of the entries in the challenge! February's sponsor is Paperbabe Stamps

Owned by Craft StamperDT
member Kim Costello, Paperbabe stamps are a wonderfully eclectic mix of
designs, from gorgeous backgrounds and quirky figures to doll face
stamps, indispensable when it comes to creating our own whimsical faces! The
prize for the February challenge? Two stamp plates of the winners choice! You'll be spoilt for choice!

Our second winner is our Design Winner. This winner is chosen by our DT, who all vote for their favourite design from all of the entries. This winner will have their winning project published in Craft Stamper Magazine, they will have a GDT slot for an upcoming challenge, and will also feature in their very own Winners Profile blog post!

I hope the prizes have given you all an incentive to win...... and how about some eye candy from the DT to give you some stencilling inspiration!

Thursday, 5 February 2015

Hello there and happy Thursday! Every first Thursday of the month I get to post over on the Craft Stamper Magazine Blog, sharing further ideas about my article in that months Craft Stamper. In the February issue, I shared few cute Valentine’s cards that would be great for a child to give to their parents or even for a parent to give to their child.

I know us guys in the UK don’t really celebrate Valentine’s like they do over in the USA but I do like to celebrate it with my little family….. one can never have too much love can they?

So instead of colouring my cheeky chappies fromLawn Fawn ‘Monster Mash’, I decided to let some patterned paper do the work for me. I stamped them onto some patterned paper, fussy cut them out, added a little shading to them with a grey marker, covered with a Wink of Stella and then Glossy Accents on top. Once I had added the Glossy Accents I added a googly eye to each of them.

For the white card layers I have used Mama Elephant ‘Femme Frames’ and the circle window was cut using the largest of the Wplus9 ‘Clear Cut Circle Stackers’.

This was such a quick and easy card to put together to share the love around.

I would really love to know what you think of my card! Please leave me a comment, and I'd also love to see any of your work that was inspired by this!

Tuesday, 3 February 2015

It's that lovely time of year when spring is, if not quite in the air then most definitely in the offing, and the world slowly starts to thaw around us and this month's issue has plenty of inspiration to keep you going through the (hopefully) last few weeks of winter!

In this month's issue you will find:

Mothering Sunday Suitcase where Elizabeth Borer shows you how to decorate a mini suitcase in this pretty painted project

The Craft Stamper March issue will be available from 6th February in WHSmith's and all good craft stores across the UK. Or if you want to make sure that you never miss a copy you can call our friendly Customer Service team on 01684 588599 and subscribe!